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Ubisoft doing away with 'always-on' DRM

Ubisoft is doing away with its always-on digital rights management (DRM) policy, the company's worldwide director for online games Stephanie Perotti told Rock, Paper, Shotgun in a recent interview. The policy dictated that those playing Ubisoft's PC games would have to maintain a constant connection to the internet, even when playing single-player content. According to Perotti, Ubisoft PC games will now require "a one-time online activation when you first install the game, and from then you are free to play the game offline." In fact, Perotti noted that this has been Ubisoft's policy since June of 2011.

Digging into the ol' Joystiq archives, it looks like that isn't exactly true. While there have since been high-profile releases that shipped without the typical always-on DRM – notably Assassin's Creed Revelations – others definitely shipped with the restrictive protection. From Dust and Driver: San Francisco, both released after June 2011, each shipped with always-on DRM – only to see Ubisoft patch it out after receiving negative feedback.

Still, if the new policy is now firmly in place, it marks a huge change in direction for Ubisoft's PC releases, especially considering that CEO Yves Guillemot stated only two weeks ago that the company's PC products have a "93-95 percent piracy rate."

Beyond the issue of piracy, Perotti also addressed the customary delays faced by Ubisoft's PC games, saying, "We need to improve our communication, and make sure we provide better visibility to the PC community on our release dates for PC." She added that Ubisoft is "committed" to doing better and releasing its PC games "as close as possible to console releases." As an example, she mentioned Far Cry 3, which is slated to release on the same day as its console counterparts, and Assassin's Creed 3, which arrives November 23, "just a few weeks after the console version."

That piracy rate might drop a little.
Concerning Ubisoft games We are litterally better off using the cracks the teams create because it gives us the freedom we want and deserve (since we payed) without having to jump through hoops.

I bought Splintercell conviction on Steam in the sales because it was so cheap.
To play the game I have click the icon in steam whih in turn loads up Uplay (ubisoft's own content service) then I have to click the game icon in Uplay and then the game finally loads, what makes it worse is if I bypass steam altogther and and just login directly in to Uplay I find my account has no games in the library, how stupid is that?

sorry, but this is ubisoft we are talking about here. until I see it actually happen, I'll choose to be sceptical. it's not the first time this has been claimed, only for it to turn out to be not entirely true.

the rumour was circulating a long time ago that they were doing away with it, then it turned out to be that they were just dialling it back just enough that they thought it would appease gamers, when all they did, was modify it so you only needed to be online to launch the game. who is to say that is not what is going on here? who is to say that if they do get rid of it, they don't have some other devious and equally draconian method of $#@!ing their customer base sideways, backwards & upside down to replace it with?

until I see an official press release by ubisoft themselves to say they are removing it 100% completely, with full absolution, I'm not taking it as fact, in fact, until they do that, for me, it's simply not happening. all I have seen so far, are a few blog articles claiming that some joe random blogger interviewed some joe random from ubisoft and he said they were removing it. those articles I have seen, seem to be referencing one "source" in particular.

this is how rumours get started, and how they spread like wildfire around the net, and is how inevitably lots of people end up dejected and disappointed. as far as I can see, I haven't viewed any official press release on the matter on any of the official ubisoft channels.

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